I am of two opinions on this:
1) When we raise money we call upon the goodwill people have for the work
we do. We should raise sufficient funds to do the important work we do. We
need to save some for a rainy day, but we should never collect money just
for the sake of it. When we set appropriate fundraising goals and meet them
we should thank all involved and save people's remaining goodwill for the
future.
2) People do want to engage with us. Donating is often an easier commitment
than becoming an editor or volunteer programmer. We have 260 proposals,
most of which are excellent, for a community tech team with 6 members. This
is obviously more work than they can take on. More funds for this sort of
work is not a bad problem to have.
With a clear movement strategy I think these will be easier issues to
address. With Katherine at the helm I am confidence that we will soon have
such a strategy. Additionally our financial future looks solid. Many of
those entering the professional world have relied heavily on our work for
their education and as such they in a way view us as an alma mater
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_mater>.
Congrats to Lisa and her team for another amazing year of fundraising :-)
James
On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hoi,
Do you remember all this talk about an endowment fund? It makes sense to
get more money in it because without sufficient funds it is a paper tiger.
PS I prefer to have it funded by out contributors than by a few large
donations. (both are welcome).
Thanks,
GerardM
On 7 December 2016 at 18:03, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Seddon,
Okay, but I believe I am correct in saying that you took around $34
million
last December, even though the publicised[1]
target was $25 million.
I am basing that on the monthly bar chart in the Wikimedia Foundation's
2015–2016 Fundraising Report.[2]*
In 2014, the publicised target was $20 million, and you reported[3] that
you surpassed that as well – by more than $10 million, according to the
frdata dump.
Given that this year you've taken well over half your target amount in
eight days, and are outperforming last year's campaign, I estimate you'll
end up with a total of around $40 million if you keep the campaign
running
until the end of the year, i.e. $15 million more
than the communicated
target.
Is that what you're intending to do, or will you end the campaign when
the
targeted $25 million are in the bank?
Andreas
* I tried to include the chart for quick reference, but the mail that
included seems to have gotten stuck in the system. I guess pipermail
doesn't like graphics.
[1]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/12/01/wikimedia-foundati
on-annual-campaign/
[2]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2015-2016_Fundraising_Report
[3]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/01/05/thank-you-for-keep
ing-knowledge-free-and-accessible/
On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 2:04 PM, Joseph Seddon <jseddon(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hey Andreas
A very quick email just noting I don't know the method by which that
frdata
> dump is created (its very old and not maintained) but it would seem
that
> numbers in the frdata dump are only useful
as a rough guide.
>
> We are basing our numbers on internal accounting figures which is more
> representative of the actual cash flow since it is more closely based
on
> actual cleared payments.
>
> Seddon
>
> On 7 Dec 2016 13:36, "Andreas Kolbe" <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > People can follow progress of the fundraiser by loading the
spreadsheet
> > files provided here:
> >
> >
https://frdata.wikimedia.org/
> >
> > At the time of writing, the data in
> >
> >
> > yeardata-day-vs-sum.csv
> > <https://frdata.wikimedia.org/yeardata-day-vs-sum.csv> Total amount
> > received per day (not taking into account refunds)
> >
> > indicate that you have received $15.8 million in donations since the
> > year-end campaign started on November 29. The advertised target of
the
> > campaign is $25 million[1] – so after
less than nine days, you are
> already
> > more than 60% there.
> >
> > Are you planning to end the campaign once the publicised target is
> reached,
> > or will you go beyond the target as you did in the last two years?
> >
> > [1]
> >
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/29/wikimedia-
> > foundation-annual-fundraiser/
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 11:05 PM, Joseph Seddon <
jseddon(a)wikimedia.org>
>
wrote:
>
> > Hello All!
> >
> > So originally we were going to send an update after the first two
weeks
> > but
> > > with so much going on and following feedback, I'll cover as much
as I
can
> > in as brief a form as possible and more regularly than planned:
> >
> >
> > -
> >
> > Banners limited: We have already begun limiting the number of
times
> a
> > > reader will see a banner within a single browser if they choose
to
not
> > dismiss the banners. For the moment, dismissing a banner or
viewing
a
> > banner *up to 10 times* will result in the banners being
suppressed
> for
> > a period of 1 week.
> > -
> >
> > Big messaging update [1]: We've been playing heavily with the
ideas
of
> “fake news” and “facts matter”. In
addition for first time since
2013,
> we
> have returned to an appeal coming from a specific individual, in
this
> > case
> > Jimmy. Much of the inspiration for both came from interviews
> Fundraising
> > did with both Jimmy and Katherine back in October.
> > -
> >
> > Big design update & in-line banners: We've moved away from the
dark
> > navy
> > > blue (seen as black by many people), which was considered by the
> > > community
> > > to be too mobid and foreboding, to a white background banner
with
red
> > border. Following extensive testing we also moved to inline
banners
> > over
> > > the weekend replacing the top header banners.
> > > -
> > >
> > > Promising Numbers: Currently we believe that we have raised
around
> > > $13,000,000 (accounting for
payments to be cleared). This has
been
> > > helped
> > > enormously by both gains found in our banner campaigns that is
> > allowing
> > > us
> > > to keep pace with the decline of desktop, as well as a
brilliantly
> >
performing e-mail campaign.
> > -
> >
> > Awesome E-mail: November 30th 2016 saw our biggest day for email
> > fundraising ~$950,000 (2016) vs ~$550,000 (2015) raised in a 24
hour
> > > period
> > > with approximately a similar number of e-mails.
> > > -
> > >
> > > Stable Tech: This year has been extremely stable from a
technical
> > > standpoint compared to other
years, with the most perplexing
issue
> > > being an
> > > odd dip that occurred in our donations and traffic [2] on
December
> 1st
> > > for
> > > one hour. This occurred during the quietest period in a day for
2
> days
> > > but
> > > then appeared to stop. Low impact but naturally could be a
bigger
> > issue
> > > if
> > > the problem occurred during peak fundraising hours or was more
> > > prolonged,
> > > investigations continue.
> > > -
> > >
> > > Major gifts going great: Our major gifts team have been very
busy,
and
> > have seen double the number of Major gifts donations during this
> period
> > of
> > the year compared with last year which means this page [3]
getting a
> > > lot of
> > > updates recently.
> > > -
> > >
> > > A brilliant social media team: In short awesome work has been
done
> by
> > > them but I will send a separate more detailed update on this :)
> > >
> > >
> > > [1] -
> > >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein?banner=B1617_
> > > 1117_en6C_dsk_p1_lg_template&force=1&country=US
> > >
> > > [2] -
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T152122
> > > [3] -
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Benefactors
> > >
> > > --
> > > Seddon
> > >
> > > *Advancement Associate (Community Engagement)*
> > > *Wikimedia Foundation*
> > > _______________________________________________
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